Google+ Has More User Accounts Than Twitter

Google+ now hosts more user accounts than Twitter, according to a survey [pdf] conducted in March by Burst Media.

The study, which gained attention today when the analytics firm eMarketer dove into its findings, reported that while about a quarter of users reported having Google+ accounts, roughly 16 percent said they had Twitter accounts.

Facebook remained the leading social network by a wide margin.

The data did not look at user activity, leaving unanswered the question of how many of Google+’s accounts were generated by users of other Google services. Still, Google has seen several promising metrics recently for its long-discounted social network. For instance, a single mention on Google+ reportedly drives more sales than one on Facebook. Google is also leveraging the information on social connections in obtains through it social offering into its more successful products, such as maps.

The study showed that women continue to lead men in use of social networks. For instance, 56 percent of women had Facebook accounts, while just under half of men did. The gap is more pronounced on Instagram.

Female users led males by about 1.5 percentage points on Google+ and Twitter.

Pinterest continues to have the most dramatic gap between male and female users. One in five U.S. women has a Pinterest account, while just one in 20 men does.

LinkedIn is the only social platform to buck the trend: It hosts accounts for a fraction of a percent more men than women.

Smartphone use of social networks continues to grow, with just under half half of both men and women logging in from the devices. Men have turned more quickly to tablets, perhaps because of their steep price tag: About a third of men and a fifth of women logged in to social networks via tablet, according to the survey.